Sawt Falasteen - After two years of uncertainty, Israeli parents bury hostage son

Nimrodi, 18 at the time of Hamas's attack on October 7, 2023, was doing his military service at a base near the Erez Crossing into Gaza when he was seized.

Since then, he was one of the few hostages for whom no proof of life had been given.

His body was returned to Israel on Tuesday evening under the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas brokered by US President Donald Trump.

"How many times did I speak about you, how many times did I tell your story, how many times did I cry out, and now I can't find words," said his father, Alon Nimrodi, his voice choking as he stood by the freshly covered grave.

Prior to his burial, Israeli soldiers marched in step ahead of his coffin at the military cemetery in Kfar Saba, in central Israel, where he was laid to rest.

Verses recited by a rabbi accompanied the procession as thousands of mourners, many in uniform, stood in solemn silence, an AFP correspondent reported.

Rows of soldiers in khaki uniforms and green berets surrounded the site, some of them from COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry unit responsible for civilian coordination in the Palestinian territories.

"Tamir, my dear son, I never objected when you enlisted," Alon Nimrodi said.

"After the monsters kidnapped you... I told your mother 'It's good he was taken, not killed'. I was so wrong."

Fighting back tears, he delivered a message directly to the Israeli authorities.

"You have the responsibility to do everything until the last hostage returns!" he said.

Hamas and its allied groups still hold the remains of 19 hostages in Gaza.

On the day of the attack, militants took 251 people to the territory. Most of them have been freed under three truces during the course of the war.

Earlier Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to secure the return of the bodies of the remaining captives.

- 'Agony' -

Nimrodi, the eldest in three siblings, was seized "in his pyjamas and unarmed," his mother previously told AFP.

He managed to send her a brief message about rocket fire before being taken with two other soldiers.

Since then, his image had become one of the symbols of the hostage crisis, appearing on banners and signs along the road leading to his home village of Nirit, near the Green Line separating Israel from the occupied West Bank.

For months his family joined rallies and public campaigns urging the government to prioritise the hostages' release as they waited for any sign that Nimrodi was alive.

In March, his mother lamented to AFP that "the issue of the hostages is no longer a priority in Israel."

"I can only imagine the unbearable pain and agony of the family, who for two years didn't know what had become of their son," said Hadas, a 68-year-old Israeli attending the funeral though she had never met Nimrodi.

Throughout the war, Hamas released sporadic videos of several hostages showing them alive but clearly under duress, urging Israel to halt its military campaign.

The first was published on October 16, 2023, featuring French-Israeli hostage Mia Shem.

"Those videos were psychological warfare," said David, 55, who declined to give his last name.

He blamed not just Hamas but also the Israeli government for the trauma the families of hostages were suffering.

"These two years have been deeply painful -- the humiliating hostage releases, the footage of captives, all of it," he said.

"I just hope for elections soon, to get rid of this government and its extremists. I just want to live in peace."

T.Khatib--SF-PST